‘True Detective’ Season 3 | Here’s What the Plot Will Be

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the third season will tell the story of a macabre crime that takes place in the Ozarks and a mystery that plays out over the course of decades and in three separate time periods.

Mahershala Ali will be starring in the show as a state police detective from Northwest Arkansas named Wayne Hays. As with Season 2, this will be a completely new story that does not continue the plot of previous seasons.

Nic Pizzolatto will return to write every episode of Season 3, except for one that is co-written by David Milch. Entertainment Weekly had previously reported that Milch, known for creating shows like NYPD Blue and Deadwood, would be teaming up with Pizzolatto for the upcoming season.

The logo of HBO’s ‘True Detective.’ | HBO

There’s not a whole lot else that has been revealed about True Detective‘s third season today, but that plot description certainly sounds reminiscent of Season 1, which also told the story of a mystery that spanned decades and took place in more than one time period. The setting has drawn some comparisons to Netflix’s Ozark, although that show takes place in Missouri and it sounds like True Detective Season 3 will take place in Arkansas.

When it premiered in 2014, True Detective was one of the best reviewed shows of the year, also being nominated for multiple Emmys and Golden Globes. But the second season was not well reviewed, and the show did not have a presence at the Emmys and the Golden Globes that year. HBO President Michael Lombardo later took some responsibility for this drop in quality, saying that the network pressured Nic Pizzolatto to meet a certain air date rather than simply letting him take his time.

“Our biggest failures—and I don’t know if I would consider True Detective—but when we tell somebody to hit an air date as opposed to allowing the writing to find its own natural resting place, when it’s ready, when it’s baked—we’ve failed,” he told The Frame in 2016. ”And I think in this particular case, the first season of True Detective was something that Nic Pizzolatto had been thinking about, gestating, for a long period of time.”

HBO apparently learned their lesson, and they’ve been allowing Nic Pizzolatto to take his time with the new season. The show has already been off the air for over two years, and Season 3 does not yet have a premiere date.